Tale #50: Makin’ Copies

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2023.

After a hiatus for the holidays/working tech for a show for twenty-two days straight, I have returned with more tales.

If you are still with me after all of this time away, I’m very grateful.

New Year’s eve brings a lot of memories, a lot of hope, and a lot of stats. People document how many classes they took at their favorite gym that year, what cities they traveled to, what their most-played songs were, etc. It is an abundance of information about how people spent their year.

Between 2016 – 2019, I was at my deepest in the VACT work. VACT was essentially my full time job. My work at VACT took me to three places most frequently: the VACT Building, the VAHS PAC, and the FedEx on Mineral Point Road.

My New Year’s stats for each year from 2016 – 2019 would include over 100 hours spent making copies.

There are massive amounts of photocopies that get made each year for a community theater. You copy audition forms, callback materials, sheet music, posters, ticket slips, wonka bar wrappers, fake newspapers…the list is endless.

Now typically the photocopying would be the job of the producer. Whenever I was directing a show, I would offer to do the photocopying myself or at least assist with it because a) we’ve already established I’m a control freak, b) I felt bad for whoever got stuck with that task because it can take forever, and c) I weirdly didn’t mind making copies.

One of the biggest New Year’s resolutions you see bouncing all over instagram is the goal to practice mindfulness. Mindfulness is essentially just being fully aware of where you are and what you are doing without letting your mind wander to every other stressful thing that exists in your brain space.

I have always had a hard time shutting my brain down. Yet somehow, the hum of the copy machine combined with the need to be alert to switch out pages, collate, fix a paper jam, etc, kept me fully focused on what I was doing. I could practice mindfulness over that beautiful copy machine.

I developed quite a fondness for my trips to FedEx. I once even went during a snowstorm to get my copies made. So when additional opportunities to go there appeared, I was weirdly excited.

In 2016, I directed my first show with Bring It On the Musical. We found the most amazing cheer uniforms on sale from a big spirit company. We had one full set of red and one full set of green uniforms for the show along with two custom made mascot heads designed by a local props genius. I quickly realized it would be an amazing set to rent and that with just two or three rentals, VACT could make back the money they spent on the uniforms and mascots.

I have such a head for business, I know.

So I posted our inventory on MTI’s community marketplace and sure enough, there was interest. All I had to do was box them up and take them to be shipped.

To FedEx!

We rented the Bring It On set quite frequently, so I was often seen hauling giant boxes from my car to the store.

Over the four years I frequented FedEx, people started to recognize me (both customers and employees). They’d ask me how my shows were going, what I was up to, how my holidays were.

I started to earn privileges. If my machine ever needed more paper, I was allowed to just help myself. I could go into their employee only cabinets. I got an official FedEx business account set up for VACT. I even started to help other customers with their printing/copying needs.

One winter day in 2018, here is the specific tale for this post just fyi, I was copying away when the person next to me needed help with the settings on their copier. They needed it to be double sided with the hole-punches added. I, of course, knew exactly how to do that, so I assisted her.

The manager came over and said, “you could work here. You seem to know everything.” I laughed and said, “yeah sorry I’m in here a lot and she needed help.” Then he said, “no but really do you want to work here?”

I was busy enough with the other parts of my VACT job that did not include making copies, so I gracefully declined but assured him I’d still be in plenty. It’s nice to know I have backup career options if all this theater/choreography/writing stuff I’m into completely flops.

In terms of the song choice for this week’s post, I felt the contrast between the accounting opening and the showgirl section was perfectly fitting. There are many people who think producing is simply being in charge and making decisions while sitting on a lofty perch. I’m sure there are many producers in other community theaters that behave as such. However, at VACT, while producers do get to sit at the top of the staff food chain along with the director they are also in the trenches doing the work. And what was the main work in the trenches ladies and gentlemen? Makin’ copies.